Google’s self-driving cars aren’t the only autonomous beings the company has developed. Google Home has been designed to listen to everything you do, say and ask in the hope of making your everyday life simpler.
“Computing is evolving beyond phones, and people are using it in context across many scenarios, be it in their television, be it in their car, be it something they wear on their wrist or even something much more immersive,” Google’s chief executive Sundar Pichai said at the announcement of the robot.
What is Google Home?
The artificial intelligence-powered ‘bot looks like a speaker, but it features a well-hidden microphone to listen to your daily conversations and then remembers this, presenting you with relevant information as and when you require it.
How does Google Home work?
Google Home uses Google Assistant, an AI engine that connects to your Google account to glean information relating to you. It then matches this with the conversations you’re having and requests you make to ensure everything it taken care of. You simply need to say “OK Google” and Google Home will start listening to your requests, using the information it has collected about you.
What does Google Home do?
Google Home can do everything you’d expect a personal assistant to do for you. As we said above, it can remind you of appointments and meetings and send messages for you.
For example, it will remind when you have a holiday booked in your calendar, what the weather will be like for that trip to Cornwall next week, create a list to remind you what you need to pack and send messages to everyone going on the trip to tell them the weather is going to be abysmal.
You can also ask Google Home to check information stored in your emails, such as flight details or perform a Google search if you’re too lazy to type it into your phone.
When will Google Home launch?
Google hasn’t yet announced when it will become available to buy, but it’s thought to be landing at some point this year.
How much will Google Home cost?
Google Home is a pretty similar concept to Amazon Echo, which launched in the US and we would expect it to be priced similarly (just take a look at Google Chromecast vs. Amazon Fire Stick), so around £150 (Amazon Echo costs $179.99, around £125).
